Chink in the Armor
by Gen-Unknown
Summary: [MC X McKay] It's unknown weither Master Chief is capable of getting close to another human, but that won't stop Melissa McKay from trying. Based off hints given in The Flood...forgive the boring beginning....it should get better.


**Disclaimer: I think we all get the hint that I don't have any affiliation with Halo aside from having bought the first two books and games…….if you think otherwise…kiss my ass.**

Story idea is based on the Halo book **The Flood**.

**Character/Term List (I will post any new terms or characters at the top of every chapter):  
UNSC---Army  
Covenant---Hostile Alien species at seeking to destroy humanity  
Master Chief---UNSC soldier with special ablities  
Melissa McKay---UNSC Lieutenant, 2nd in command to Major Sliva  
Lieutenant Oros--- Female subordinante under LT. McKay  
Sergeant Lister---Other subordinante to Lt. McKay  
Pillar of Autumn---Spaceship forced to crashland on Halo after a Covenant attack  
Commander Keyes---Captain of the Pillar of Autumn, Captured by the Covenant  
Major Silva---Commander of Alpha Base in Keyes absince  
Helljumpers---Special Elite forces...similiar to the NAVY SEALS.  
ODST's---Another name for the Helljumpers  
Pelicans---Transport ships**

**If there are any other questions about what something is feel free to send me a message and i'll be more than happy to clear it up**

****

She heard the stories and listened to the tales the men and women of the UNSC told about him not sure which to classify as fact and which to classify as fiction. Although once her and her fellow Helljumpers had secured the butte as commanded by Major Antonio Silva, First Lieutenant Melissa McKay finally found time to ponder the mysteries of the man known as only as Master Chief.

Rumors had always been without shortage when it came to him; some said he was a robot, others claimed he was a serial killer on earth who had been reprogrammed and was nothing but a tool the military used. Every Marine, Engineer, Helljumper, Naval officer, and Pilot had a differing view of the Chief, the most resentment came from those who were part of the Helljumpers, who felt that he took away some of the glory that was rightfully theirs. Not all the Helljumpers felt this way, as a lot of the lower ranks looked upon him in awe. Most of the flack and complaints about Master Chief came from the higher ups, the Majors and Lieutenants of the ODST's, the ones who sat back in the bases while their men risked their lives just so their commander could receive his next badge or promotion giving them even less credit, if any at all, then the Chief did. The biggest praise came from the ordinary Marines, who found his presence to be a source of confidence. Sure they knew that not everyone was going to survive, this was war after all, and war had many casualties, but just knowing that he was there fighting with them seemed to make everything better and encouraged them to fight even harder.

They saw first-hand how the Covenant forces feared him, tried everything they could to bring him down and got riddled full of lead for their troubles. Even the mighty Hunters, their bodies covered head to toe in armor, shields which could impale you with all the sharp spikes and each one of them had a powerful arm which shot out blasts of energy hot enough to reduce a normal soldier to nothing more than a scorch mark in the sand fell to the Master Chief like they were simple grunts. Nothing ever seemed to harm him, bullets bounced off his armor Covenant energy blasts came close, but still failed none-the-less to penetrate the powerful MJOLNIR armor. Probably the deadliest thing about him though, wasn't the armor, the accuracy he had with any kind of weapon, or even the efficiency in which he completed the missions. No, the deadliest thing about him was the little voice in the back of his head known as Cortana.

Of what the soldiers knew about the Chief, they knew even less about Cortana other than that she was the voice inside the Chief and was probably the best AI ever designed. The only people with any in-depth information about Cortana were Captain Keyes and her creator. With Keyes MIA and her creator dead on Reach the only image anyone could get on Cortana were whatever they decided for themselves was the truth.

Unlike the Master Chief though, Lieutenant Melissa McKay was a fairly normal and open soldier. She was currently second in command behind Major Silva, who could best be described as a blend of Keyes Intelligence and a soldiers attitude. Despite all his faults, McKay couldn't think of anyone better to serve under short of Captain Keyes himself. Silva's mind had gotten them out of more than one jam since them evacuated the Pillar of Autumn, and for that she was grateful. Where Silva failed however, McKay excelled. McKay herself was a little taller than average, with deep, jade colored eyes and a nice fit form. Her hair was cut in perfect military form, showing off the Helljumper tattoos on the sides and back of her head. Currently she stood in Silva's makeshift office which was thrown together from whatever they were able to strip from the lifeboats or had been able to carry before the Pillar of Autumn went down. The few electronics they were able to successfully get working was only a starting point to what they were hoping to get. Soon after talking to Wellsley, a Cortana like AI who looked like and was named after the Duke of Wellington, Silva turned around and noticed McKay standing there awaiting the reason she had been summoned in the middle of her sleep.

"I'll make this simple…as you are well aware we have close to jack shit when it comes to technology, equipment, supplies, ammunition, fuel, and about everything an army needs in order to survive for any significant amount of time. The fact that no other UNSC ships are close and we have no idea where we are makes this an even more desperate situation. That being said, I want you to take your unit on a salvage mission to the Pillar of Autumn and get whatever you can. Our scouts report that the ship has already been occupied by a Covenant force, but I know that wont keep you from doing what's needed." Silva finished explaining the situation and looked at his Lieutenant. "Any questions?"

"Sir, should we notify the Master Chief and have his assist us?"

"WHAT!? That…that…thing? Are you implying that that thing could do a better job than MY Helljumpers at the very thing they were trained to do?" Silva shouted as his face turned red with anger at the mere mention of the Master Chief

"No sir, I just meant that with his abilities he could free up some of the men to help salvage more or could be used to carry more gear and speed up the process." McKay stated after the initial shock of hearing her CO explode at something any other man probably would've jumped at.

"If you bring him with you, then everyone will continue to say that we can't do anything without him, that we're weak. Bring him with you and you'll undermine everything that we stand for." At this point, McKay knew Silva wasn't using his head, but spoke only from his prejudice. It seemed like everyone on the entire base with the exception of Silva respected the Chief. It was no secret that there were some people disliked things about him, but when it came down to it all, they respected him just like he respected them. More often than not he had thanked and shown his thanks for the help and support that he got from the Marines. Even with all the advantages he had over them he knew better than anyone that without their help he probably wouldn't be alive right now. She thought about those times while Silva continued to rant and rave. Once he had stopped she acknowledged her mistake, asked forgiveness and went immediately to her squad mates to tell them their new mission.

After informing her two subordinates, Sergeant Lister and Lieutenant Oros, McKay sent them off to prepare while she sat in her room and thought about whither she should defy her CO or not. She knew that Silva was wrong, and it wouldn't have been the first time she went behind his back without him knowing, but every time she did she worried about the risks and what would happen if she got caught. She soon decided that it was well worth the risk to bring the Chief with them if he was up for the task. As she lifted herself and prepared to find the Chief a knock came at her door.

"Come in" she shouted to whoever wished to enter. After hearing that it was safe to enter, her visitor stepped through the door to the sight of her back facing him while she was cramming healing kits and other small yet important items into a knapsack for the journey as well as reloading all the weapons she planned to bring along and checking that she had enough ammo. Having not yet seen her visitor she assumed it was Lieutenant Oros since the only people who ever came to see her right before a mission was either her or Lister, and knowing him he was probably having a last minute snack while making idle chatter with some of the men under his personal command as he always did just incase this one turned out to be his unlucky day.

"I'll be done in just a moment Lieutenant, just need to do one last…" McKay stopped as she turned around and saw that she'd been incorrect in her guess and the figure standing before her in fact belonged to none other than Master Chief.  
"Chief, I was just about to go look for you. As you've probably heard by now I've been assigned to salvage resources from the Pillar of Autumn wreckage and I was going to ask if you wanted to come along."

At first the Chief didn't answer, almost like he was expecting an order and hadn't recognized that she was giving him a choice in the matter, but before she could check her theory he spoke

"As much as I'd like to, I only stopped by to ask a favor of you."

"Silva anticipated that you'd go ahead and ask the Chief to come along anyway so he wants us to see if we can dig up anything as to the whereabouts of Captain Keyes." Cortana explained mid-sentence drawing an irritated facial reaction of the Chiefs part, but it went unnoticed to all but him due to his helmet.

"Anyway" he continued "I wanted to ask you if you could have one of your techs recover some files stored in the consoles inside the cryo-lab once you reach the Pillar of Autumn."

"I'll see what I can do. I'm not sure how much extra space we'll have after we get the all of the important files from the ship…is there anything specific you want incase we're unable to take it all?"

"I'm looking for special personnel files. They're heavily encrypted and should be with the same data used to unfreeze me."

"I'll be glad to get them for you. It's the least I can do after all you've done to ensure that most of us survived both the fight in space and here on the ground." With a quick thank you the Chief turned towards the door with McKay not far behind but stopped suddenly and turned around once more.

"If you could, please avoid telling Silva about this little side job, I don't think he'd be too happy if he knew." With that the Chief exited the room. McKay watched as he walked down the halls in prefect stride. Even as he turned the corner and left her field of view she seemed dazed and in her own little world as she wondered what could be on the files that was so important he didn't want Silva to know about. So deep in thought was she that she didn't even hear Oros shout her name to get her attention and jumped slightly when Oros' hand came to rest on her shoulder bringing her back to reality.

"Good to see you back with us Lieutenant, thought you'd learned how to fall asleep with your eyes open for a second there."

"Sorry, I was just…thinking" McKay responded not entirely sure what, if anything she should say about her conversation with the Chief until the time was right. Before she could think any further on the matter, Oros had begun speaking again.

"Everyone is good to go and waiting for you before taking off."

"Perfect, let's not waste any more time then." With that Oros turned and let McKay the opposite direction that the Chief had gone and they began the idle chit-chat while on their way to procure supplies…as well as the mysterious files that McKay was determined to get for the Master Chief.


End file.
